This is one of our off weeks from doing the Golf Talk podcast, so I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the recent release of some golf statistics software – Scorecard – which was just bumped to version 2.0 with some well-requested features.
In the interest of disclosure, I’m a partial owner of the software company that makes Scorecard as well as one of the developers/designers for the software. It’s not free ($29.95, or $14.95 for upgrades from 1.x), and thus, I make a bit of money from the sales of Scorecard.
As I said, Scorecard 2.0 was just released with several user-requested features, including full nine-hole support for both statistics and handicap calculation, per-hole user notes (so you can document what clubs you hit or anything else you’d like), and graphing of over 35 statistics (with markers).
There are a fair number of golf statistics applications out there. Some, like Scorecard, were even developed by golfers. Many golfers keep their own statistics in spreadsheets, and many golfers simply don’t bother to keep their statistics at all.
Scorecard was built under the guiding principles of simplicity and relevance. It doesn’t track every statistic imaginable because I believe you should be able to enter your statistics in less time than it takes to play a round of golf. To that end, Scorecard asks you to note only five statistics during your round – score, number of putts, fairway hit or missed, up-and-down/sand save/GIR, and the distance of your first putt. These five statistics (one of which you already write down anyway) take only about one minute to enter into Scorecard, and from those numbers the software generates a wealth of valuable statistics, including:
- Handicap and anti-handicap (with ESC automatically applied)
- GIR, Driving Accuracy, and other stats like “GIR after hitting the fairway” and “GIR from the left rough” as well as scoring differences for each.
- Total Putts, Putts per GIR, Putts per Missed GIR, and distance of putts made.
- Scrambling stats, including up-and-down and sand saves.
- Scoring averages when you hit the fairway, find the rough on either side, and hit or miss the green.
- Best vs. Worst scoring averages: how do your best rounds compare to your worst in key statistics?
- A fair amount more.
Scorecard 2.0 works on both Windows and Mac OS X and all the files – including the license and your database – are cross-platform compatible. Scorecard can print scorecards for the courses, can graph up to three statistics over time for comparison, and can store an unlimited number of courses, tees, and rounds.
A Scorecard demo is available for download at http://cynicalpeak.com/scorecard/ for both Windows and Mac OS X. The same “demo” software can be unlocked for $29.95 (or $14.95 if you’re upgrading from version 1). As a reward of sorts for those who have read this far, enter the coupon code “SANDTRAP” to save 20% off the full purchase price.
The 9 hole support is going to be great for me as most of the rounds that I put in are 9 and if I do get 18 in, odds are there will be another 9 or so holes to follow immediately. 😀
Per hole notes will be a nice addition as well. Thanks!
Thanks for the upgrade! I play 9 holes all the time, and it’s great to be able to put it into the system. The graphing is really helpful for getting a better sense of improvements over time.
I think it’s worth mentioning that there is a FREE iPhone app for Scorecard that really expands the functionality from an ease of use standpoint (for me at least).
For those who don’t know – Essentially the iPhone app is a direct input into your Scorecard database via a wi-fi sync over your local network.
Basically you install the iPhone app on the phone, start the Desktop Scorecard app, and then locate your PC using the “Sync” option. This gets your courses from Scorecard onto the phone. Now when you go play there is no more pencil (if you so choose) – you just open the iPhone app and choose new round. All of the round options that Scorecard needs are defined in a summary screen, then you select “Holes” and you’re off to entering the round, complete with all the info Scorecard needs to track all your stats presented in a neat/clean GUI.
Now when you go home just sync the iPhone to the Scorecard desktop app over wi-fi and you’re done entering your scores. Great setup for iPhone folks…
Thanks for mentioning it. You and others will want to hold off until the iPhone app is bumped to 2.0 for nine-hole rounds. I think 18-hole rounds work with Scorecard 2.0 and the current iPhone app, but for nine-hole support you’ll want 2.x of both.
hey realy Thanks for that. and I play 9 holes all the time, and it’s great to be able to put it into the system. 😛